


The Education of Kings

by go_gentle



Category: Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 18:06:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/600634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/go_gentle/pseuds/go_gentle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Sophos learns that being king is nothing like he imagined</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Education of Kings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [inkasrain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkasrain/gifts).



> Thanks to E, my cheerleader/hand-holder/beta extraordinaire!

Sophos was to marry Eddis in Attolia's capital at the beginning of spring. Eddis had offered to be married earlier, as soon as preparations could be completed, but Sophos knew that by the time a ceremony was arranged that Attolis and Attolia both could approve of, they would be into winter, too late to allow travel down from the mountains of Eddis.

"We don't have to wait," Sophos told her, as the majordomo Attolis had assigned to help with the planning pretended a transfixed interest in the paintings on the far wall of one of Attolia's smaller receiving rooms. "But I thought you might want your court to be able to attend."

"Thank you," Eddis said gravely. Sophos suspected she was laughing at him.

***

Eugenides insisted upon outfitting them both for their wedding. Sophos thought wistfully about insisting that his best tunic from the last time Gen had given him a wardrobe would do, but he knew it would do no good. So he let the tailors poke and prod at him until Gen nodded his satisfaction.

"No secret pockets this time, I see," he said instead.

"At your wedding, Sophos?" Eugenides said, mock surprised. "I should hope not."

"Unlike at his own, where they certainly might have been necessary," Attolia said dryly from where she had appeared in the doorway.

***

Sophos had hoped to see Eddis the morning of the ceremony, but whether deliberately or not, their paths never crossed. He lunched with his mother and sisters, then spent the afternoon being bullied by Attolis's valet, being led from bath to ceremonial bath, then dressed and combed within an inch of his life. He felt rather like a sacrificial goat, and he wished Eddis was there for him to make the joke to, so that he could see her laugh and tell him that he resembled an ox more.

By the time he was released from the valet's clutches, it was late in the day and torches were being lit in the halls and gardens. In Sounis, and in Eddis too he knew, a woman went to the house of her husband on her wedding day, but here they both went to the house of Attolis, to the central audience hall to swear their oaths.

He arrived before she did, no doubt to some careful planning among the stewards, so that the forms were preserved at least a little. That meant that when the great double doors opened again, and the hall turned to watch her enter, he could stare at her with no one to laugh at the look on his face. Even Eugenides, the most likely to mock, was safely behind him at this angle. Eddis could see him stare, of course, and there was no doubt that she did, since he could see the laughter in her eyes as she approached the front of the room. He didn't mind, of course, knowing it would be impossible for him to do anything other on his wedding day than to stare at his bride in disbelief of his good fortune.

They made their vows to each other, and to Attolis, and Sophos did not remember a single word that he spoke, nor how he and the rest of the party made their way out to the main hall for the celebration. He and Eddis shared the first glass of wine, and if anyone was thinking of Attolia's first wedding, they kept it to themselves.

Gen smirked, of course, but that was only to be expected, and he only laughed harder when Sophos kicked him under the table and told him that he at least had nothing to fear from his wife.

After dinner was the dancing. Gen and Attolia opened the dancing, and after them Sophos and Eddis. Sophos could not quite believe his luck, when he stepped out onto the dancefloor with Eddis's hand in his. They had danced together before, of course, many times, but never before had she been his wife.

"You look quite overwhelmed by all this," Eddis said gravely as they waited for the music to begin.

"I've never been married before," Sophos said, equally gravelly, and was delighted when she laughed.

***

As the night went on, the dances grew less and less orderly, until at last they were dancing the country dances, common to all three countries and danced in groups. Sophos was dragged back out onto the floor for a men's dance, subject to teasing from his family and Eddis's about how he did not want to leave his bride's side even for a moment. That was probably why he wasn't paying any attention to where he ended up in the group of men, until he found himself reaching for the hand of Eddis's Minister of War. Who, he recalled, had sworn by his sword arm on the occasion of his brother's death that no one but his niece would be crowned in Eddis.

"My son tells me you love her," the minister said without preamble.

"I - yes," Sophos stammered, feeling at once like he was 13 again and facing one of his string of tutors.

"It would be good of you to remember that I love her too, as if she was my own daughter," the minister said mildly.

"Yes, sir," Sophos said, and was grateful when the music started.

Next was Eddis's turn to be coaxed onto the dance floor, where she held hands with both of his sisters, Sophos saw with pleasure.

"I notice no one tries to take your wife from you," Sophos said to Gen.

"Ha! As if they would dare," Gen said smugly from where he leaned against Attolia's knee. He was a little in his cups, Sophos thought - or at the very least, was pretending to be, though Sophos did not know why he would pretend - as was much of the party, which perhaps explained why Attolia was allowing herself to run her fingers through the curls at the back of his neck. Watching them, Sophos found himself wanting to run his fingers through Eddis's curls - and more, if she would let him.

"Helen," he said in a low voice, catching her as she left the dancefloor. "I find myself rather fatigued this evening."

"I as well, my lord," she said, and there was a look in her eye that told him she had been wishing the same thing.

***

Attolia offered to let them stay as long as they like in her palace, but Sophos was nervous about leaving his barons alone that long. Officially, they had no power without his signet, but Sophos knew better than to believe that meant anything if they wanted something badly enough. And, selfishly, he wanted to show off Helen to them. Most of his baron had met her as Eddis, of course, but he wanted to be able to introduce her as his bride as well.

He had imagined, on the journey over the mountains from Attolia to Sounis, that they would spend their first few weeks in his capital, followed by a journey through the countryside, before Helen needed to return to Eddis to meet with her own barons. Regrettably, once he saw the faces of his father and the magus, he soon realized that that was not going to be the case. He had left the two of them to ride herd on the barons together in his absence, and it appeared it had not been an unqualified success.

"Helen, I'm sorry," he said, as soon as the new introductions had been formally made. "But it seems there are some things I have to hear about. I'll come up to our rooms as soon as this is taken care of?" he said, suddenly feeling tenuous.

"I'm sure I will be fine, Sophos," she said, leaning in to kiss his cheek. "Go with the magus, before he wears out the floor pacing."

Sophos did not mean to watch her go, and in fact did not know he had, until the magus chuckled. "Stop fussing," he said. "She'll have your entire household eating out of her hand by the time we finish catching you up on the news."

"I know," Sophos said glumly. "She is much better at this than me."

The news, as it turned out, was not at all good. As Sophos had almost expected, his barons had been plotting in his absence. It was not new laws - not quite, since that would require his seal, which they must know he would not give easily to this foolishness - but a re-interpretation of the ones already in force governing the distinction between patroni and okloi.

"This would make many men landless," Sophos said, after the magus had finished his summary. "Many families."

"Yes," the magus said simply, though Sophos suspected that he did not like it any better than Sophos himself did.

"It's an abuse of their authority," his father said, and Sophos said a silent prayer that for once his father and the magus were in agreement on something.

Of course, their agreement did not extend to how the problems should be dealt with, and after an hour of discussion, Sophos had a headache.

"Gentlemen," he said, standing up, and to his surprise, they both fell into silence. He was still not used to being Sounis - Gen, who treated him as he always had, was not one to accustom one to reigning - and for a moment he almost forgot what he had been going to say. 

"Gentlemen, I will think on your suggestions and return with my decision tomorrow."

***

"Was it terrible news?" Helen asked him when he returned to their sitting room, where she had been writing a letter.

"No," Sophos said. "No, just ordinary bad news, I suppose. My barons are going to be difficult, but that is only to be expected."

"Poor Sophos," she said. "It really is too bad you can't always just shoot one whenever they need to fall in line."

Sophos laughed. "How quickly I would run out. But that might be for the better."

Over dinner, he explained his problem to her. After a few sympathetic noises, she began laying out how she would solve the problem, just as he had seen generals lay out an attack on a battlefield.

"And lastly, some of your barons will oppose this on its own merits, and those you must find and hold tightly," she said. "And that is how I would do it."

"I think the best thing I have ever done in my life is marry you," Sophos said earnestly.

"It does get easier with practice," Helen said. "And perhaps easier when you are facing your council and not staring into your wife's eyes." 

Sophos felt himself blushing, but he was not ashamed as he pulled Helen closer to him.

***

The next morning, he invited Helen to the meeting with the magus and his father. His father raised an eyebrow but said nothing when Sophos gave him a stern look. The magus, on his part, was well-used to debating with the queen of Eddis.

"Sound," Sophos's father said, which Sophos knew to be high praise.

"Now you will have to execute the plan, My King," the magus said. "I'm afraid they won't listen to your lady wife, brilliant as she may be."

"Pity," Sounis said. "I'm sure she'd have a much easier time of it than me."

***

Sophos dutifully spent the next three days going from baron to baron, bribing, cajoling, reasoning, and pleading his case when he had to.

"I hope you are not literally going from baron to baron," Helen told him as they dressed for what Sophos has been promised would be a small formal dinner, though he had his doubts on that.

"It would be un-king-like," Sophos agreed. "No, I meet them in the small receiving room, or in the west breakfast room, or the garden chamber, and they oh-so-politely tell me that they have no intention of doing what I want, and then they smile and thank me for my time."

"I am enjoying meeting the ladies of your court," Helen said. "I find Lady Hanaktia in particular quite remarkable."

"By which you mean you are persuading them to persuade their husbands to support me," Sophos said.

Helen laughed. "There is only so much needlepoint you can talk about, after all. Sooner or later, politics does come up."

"I hope you are getting somewhere, because I feel like I'm moving backwards," Sophos said. "I have no idea how Eugenides manages this without even looking like he's trying."

"You could write to him and ask," Helen suggested. "I'm sure he'd be happy to pass along his advice."

"He would only be cryptic," Sophos said.

"Worse than asking the gods," Helen agreed. "Although Irene did tell me a delightful story about how he bullied a baron into paying his grain taxes, by appearing at the man's bedside with a knife in the dead of night."

"I shall have to save that one," Sophos says, "for when I have exhausted this approach."

***

Two days later, Sophos was finally willing to think he'd won out in the matter.

"I can't really tell, of course, since there's an excellent chance they're all lying to my face," he said to Helen from where he had thrown himself on the couch in mock despair.

"They will," Helen said confidently. "You have won them over in this."

"I bet you never had problems like this."

"Problems, yes, but not these ones," Eddis admitted. "Trade, and war, and how to feed my people, but never a revolution in my own palace."

"I never thought it would be like this, being Sounis," Sophos said. "I had to be king because there was no better option, but I never realized how much work it would be, even after I was confirmed."

"You didn't dream of power," Helen said. "That is why you will be a good king."

Sophos was sure that his face showed exactly how comforting he found that to be.

Helen laughed. “But not now. Right now, all you need to be is a good husband, and I know you can manage that.”


End file.
